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Gerrard: I will not take Liverpool job until I know I am ready.


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Steven Gerrard says that he will only take on the Liverpool managerial job if he feels that he is completely ready to do so.

Jürgen Klopp recently mentioned that the club legend is his natural successor, but speaking to former teammate Jamie Carragher, says that there is a lot of water to go under the bridge.

Sky Sports (via The Greatest game podcast) reported Gerrard as saying:

"I wouldn't take the Liverpool job just because of what Jurgen said.

“I am mature enough to know that I have to be ready for the Liverpool job.

“It’s very flattering because of who he is, and there is a lot of people out there that naturally think that if Jurgen goes in a year or two year's time, I am next. 

"I don’t and there's a couple of reasons behind it.

“I have to go and prove that I can do it, first and foremost at Rangers.” 

Gerrard says his record as a player should have nothing to do any future appointment.

“I’m mature enough to know that I have to be ready for the Liverpool job. 

“I’m not daft enough to think I‘m going to get it just because I was a good player for Liverpool Football Club. 

“If I got offered it, it's a completely different ball game because you are getting offered the Liverpool job. 

“But sitting here where I am now, doing what I am doing, I am fine. I am calm and happy.

Gerrard who currently has Rangers within two points of Celtic with a game in hand as well as successfully leading them into the last 32 of the Europa League says he is more than happy to remain in Glasgow and continue to evolve and improve as a manager.

"If I stay at Rangers for another two, three or four years I am OK - it means I am doing something right and happy. 

“I am in no rush to try and jump, I am not looking over the fence at anything, I am properly content. 

"If Jurgen stays at Liverpool for another four or five years, brilliant.

“If Liverpool decide there's another guy that is more suited to the job after Jurgen, that is a better candidate than me at that time then fine, no problem. 

“For me, it's lets crack on and be as good as you can.

“If that comes in two years or 10 years, no problem."

 

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Gerrard says that it is only natural for him to want to test himself at the top level, but he also admits that he will not be a career manager.

“I don’t see my managing until I’m 60/70 years old. 

“But I want to experience managing at the top. If that happens in two years, great, if it happens in four. 

“Obviously the perfect situation would be for my team, for Liverpool, but I'm not daft enough to think I'm going to get it just because I was a good player for Liverpool Football Club.

“I have to prove I can do it, first and foremost at Rangers.”

Gerrard keeps close contact with Klopp and says he is a fantastic resource for himself.

"I had a conversation with Jurgen when he took the job and he thought he could sort the problems out.

“I’m in his office straight away he’s an open book and he’ll give you whatever you need. 

“He’s not one of those people. He’s that thick skinned and that confident and he backs himself so much.” 


 


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9 minutes ago, Carvalho Diablo said:

I would suggest that Stevie needs to get the hell out of Scotland and move to a decent league sharpish. Learn his trade and prove himself at a proper club playing real football facing genuine challenge. Do that and then we'll talk further.

To be honest this is a good place to start fir him imho. He came across really switched on the podcast. Admitted he has and will make mistakes learning. 

 

He has pressure at Rangers but will have enough leeway to learn and win at the same time. He will need to do more than win their for the Liverpool job. 

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1 hour ago, Carvalho Diablo said:

I would suggest that Stevie needs to get the hell out of Scotland and move to a decent league sharpish. Learn his trade and prove himself at a proper club playing real football facing genuine challenge. Do that and then we'll talk further.

Couldn’t disagree more with this.  Football isn’t like it used to be.  Going into management you’ve basically got two possibilities in the top leagues now.  You go to a club where you can’t win anything unless by some complete one off fluke.  He’d be massively criticised for not winning anything then if Liverpool offered him the job.  Even though all the trophies are generally swept up by the big clubs and your best players tend to get sold from underneath you every season or so.  The other option is you get lucky and one of the big clubs takes a chance on you.  It’s too early in your career but you take it anyway because the probability is that you won’t have the player reputation to take it in 5-10 years when you probably would be ready and you fail for that reason.

 

He’s taken a job where there is immense pressure from the fans.  It clearly a challenge because he’s needed to build a team to compete with Celtic who’ve basically won everything for years now.  If he’d have taken the Celtic job I doubt it would have prepared him at all.  They have more money but it’s not as if they’re so far from rangers that it’s an impossible job.  Rangers was more of a challenge and a place were he is the underdog with a chance of winning.  If he wins the league there and does well he will get a Leicester or Spurs type job and I think after that he will be ready for it.

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On a completely unrelated note, there was a fantastic in depth interview with Pep Lijnders on The Athletic this week. Came across brilliantly in it. I didn't realise he'd had such a big role with Porto and I'd forgotten that he'd managed Trent and a lot of the younger lads in an earlier role here. Talks about his current Number 2 role in a fair bit of detail and with huge enthusiasm. He seems to be cut from a very similar cloth to Jurgen.  Still only 36 too.

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20 minutes ago, El Rojo said:

On a completely unrelated note, there was a fantastic in depth interview with Pep Lijnders on The Athletic this week. Came across brilliantly in it. I didn't realise he'd had such a big role with Porto and I'd forgotten that he'd managed Trent and a lot of the younger lads in an earlier role here. Talks about his current Number 2 role in a fair bit of detail and with huge enthusiasm. He seems to be cut from a very similar cloth to Jurgen.  Still only 36 too.

Give it Pepsi till the end of the season.

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43 minutes ago, El Rojo said:

On a completely unrelated note, there was a fantastic in depth interview with Pep Lijnders on The Athletic this week. Came across brilliantly in it. I didn't realise he'd had such a big role with Porto and I'd forgotten that he'd managed Trent and a lot of the younger lads in an earlier role here. Talks about his current Number 2 role in a fair bit of detail and with huge enthusiasm. He seems to be cut from a very similar cloth to Jurgen.  Still only 36 too.

There's a Rene Meulensteen-type danger with Ljinders, though. Being the great coach who leads the training session under the charismatic overseer doesn't for one second prepare you to be a manager. He'd have to quit and go prove himself somewhere first to be in contention when Klopp's contract ends, Imo.

 

I think the job is Gerrard's to lose. Success with Rangers is a good sign because it shows he can deliver under massive expectations and he's clearly got something about him personality-wise. If you show that as a popular ex-player, a big job isn't far away. 

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3 hours ago, Carvalho Diablo said:

I would suggest that Stevie needs to get the hell out of Scotland and move to a decent league sharpish. Learn his trade and prove himself at a proper club playing real football facing genuine challenge. Do that and then we'll talk further.

Yeh and get a German passport 

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5 minutes ago, 3 Stacks said:

There's a Rene Meulensteen-type danger with Ljinders, though. Being the great coach who leads the training session under the charismatic overseer doesn't for one second prepare you to be a manager. He'd have to quit and go prove himself somewhere first to be in contention when Klopp's contract ends, Imo.

 

I think the job is Gerrard's to lose. Success with Rangers is a good sign because it shows he can deliver under massive expectations and he's clearly got something about him personality-wise. If you show that as a popular ex-player, a big job isn't far away. 

Yeah, of course there's always a risk that the step-up would be too great for Ljinders.

 

But the points you make about Gerrard are probably similar to those made in favour of Souness when he took over and set the club back decades.

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Just now, El Rojo said:

Yeah, of course there's always a risk that the step-up would be too great for Ljinders.

 

But the points you make about Gerrard are probably similar to those made in favour of Souness when he took over and set the club back decades.

I'm not saying Gerrard is the best person for the job, I'm saying he's the most likely. And it doesn't take much for popular ex-players to get big jobs these days. 

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3 minutes ago, 3 Stacks said:

I'm not saying Gerrard is the best person for the job, I'm saying he's the most likely. And it doesn't take much for popular ex-players to get big jobs these days. 

It's definitely the flavour of the month at the moment. 

 

In regards to Jurgens replacement, I think they are on an hiding to nothing to be honest, he's irreplaceable and I'd hate to see Gerrard blamed for our probable decline.

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1 hour ago, El Rojo said:

On a completely unrelated note, there was a fantastic in depth interview with Pep Lijnders on The Athletic this week. Came across brilliantly in it. I didn't realise he'd had such a big role with Porto and I'd forgotten that he'd managed Trent and a lot of the younger lads in an earlier role here. Talks about his current Number 2 role in a fair bit of detail and with huge enthusiasm. He seems to be cut from a very similar cloth to Jurgen.  Still only 36 too.

Great article that was.

 

Irrespective of whether Lijnders proves to be the right stuff for the top job in the future or not, it’s quite possible Buvac did us a huge favour by leaving in the manner he did.

 

There’s such a freshness around everything being done at present, to be working with someone different after 20 years and one as attuned to modern coaching approaches as this fella, has to have reenergised Klopp to a certain extent.

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30 minutes ago, Lizzie Birdsworths Wrinkled Chopper said:

Great article that was.

 

Irrespective of whether Lijnders proves to be the right stuff for the top job in the future or not, it’s quite possible Buvac did us a huge favour by leaving in the manner he did.

 

There’s such a freshness around everything being done at present, to be working with someone different after 20 years and one as attuned to modern coaching approaches as this fella, has to have reenergised Klopp to a certain extent.

One league defeat (by a millimetre) in the 18 months since they've freshened up roles. I know there are a number of other variables in that equation, but 'reenergised' is right.

 

Wasn't stated outright in the piece, but it was alluded to that Ferguson wanted a role at United for Lijnders before his retirement. Did I pick that up correctly?

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9 minutes ago, El Rojo said:

Wasn't stated outright in the piece, but it was alluded to that Ferguson wanted a role at United for Lijnders before his retirement. Did I pick that up correctly?

That’s how I read it too. Seems he was highly valued.

 

Give Rodgers his due, Lijnders, Inglethorpe, Critchley and Colin Pascoe’s legs all arrived under him, didn’t they? 
 

On the other side of the ledger, Sean O’Driscoll and being Nicholas van Hoogstraten’s business partner.

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7 minutes ago, Lizzie Birdsworths Wrinkled Chopper said:

That’s how I read it too. Seems he was highly valued.

 

Give Rodgers his due, Lijnders, Inglethorpe, Critchley and Colin Pascoe’s legs all arrived under him, didn’t they? 
 

On the other side of the ledger, Sean O’Driscoll and being Nicholas van Hoogstraten’s business partner.

Yeah, fair play to him for any role he had in those appointments.

 

It's Pascoe's legs weather these icy January days too. Never forget. 

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1 hour ago, Elite said:

I hope Jürgen stays for decades and replicates a Ferguson like dynasty. However unlikely that is.

 

Never say no mate. Jürgen has bought into the ethos of the Club and its fans big time. He's found a home and people who mirror image his own way of life. When you listen to him being interviewed, especially in German, he comes across as someone who is loving every minute of his job and knows exactly how to relax, something he wasn't afforded at both Mainz 05 and especially Borussia Dortmund. He's just extended his contract which wasn't in his original plans, so I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him extend that further. We all know how football can change these days though, so I'm just going to enjoy the ride. 

On SG, I feel he does need to move on from Rangers after this season and test his managerial/man management skills in a different environment. It's quite clear he is doing a decent job at Rangers but how far can he take that job as in testing himself? 

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